Time to give up viewing camgirls?

[Mila_]

I hear you misono. Not to your extreme (I didn't do a custom), but I did tip and win a month's worth of "all content" and feel kind of like I didn't read the small print that excludes me from some content (I did get a lot, I think). She is a model I know well, but I am thinking I am too easy with the tips and stuff. It really does make one not want to risk getting burned again.

On the other hand, some models I hardly know (I visit a few times but am not a regular and tip a little) are AMAZING with sending me stuff. It is so strange. Not sure why that is.

And somehow if you are like most members you will end up tipping the awesome ones even less since why bother when they give away shit so easily :/

 

[MadJohnson]

And somehow if you are like most members you will end up tipping the awesome ones even less since why bother when they give away shit so easily :/

I'm sorry you feel that way. And I fully believe that your perspective on it comes from your experience. That part makes me even sadder.

For me personally, I'll never quite understand the obsession people have with 'getting shit' on MFC. To me, the shit most worth getting is, in fact, the time and interaction with the model. And the more I'm enjoying a given model's company, the more I'm spending time and interacting with her, the much more likely I am to tip or otherwise spend more tokens on her.

 

[Empress Mika]

I'm sorry you feel that way. And I fully believe that your perspective on it comes from your experience. That part makes me even sadder.

For me personally, I'll never quite understand the obsession people have with 'getting shit' on MFC. To me, the shit most worth getting is, in fact, the time and interaction with the model. And the more I'm enjoying a given model's company, the more I'm spending time and interacting with her, the much more likely I am to tip or otherwise spend more tokens on her.

If only all members were like you ~ ^_^;

 

[MadJohnson]

I think you might be doing MFC wrong. As Amber so clearly articulated, it's all about the camming.

Quite frankly, I think MFC makes for a poor marketplace and trying to use it as such is probably unwise. It offers none of the typical buyer protection that more transactional platforms (like C4S, ELM, etc) offer, and it comes with a very different culture in terms of both membership and models.

As for advice from this MFC member? I personally treat all money spent on camming in the same way I treat visiting strip clubs or casinos. I spend only what I can afford from my personal discretionary funds and I treat all expenditure as entertainment. If I tip a model I rarely expect something in return, and if I don't get something off a menu, I still had fun giving a pretty girl some tokens.

When I go private with a model, it's nearly always someone with whom I have a rapport and whose company I enjoy. I might be paying for her time, but I never view it as paying for anything more. Once I get her time, it's up to me to make her feel comfortable and interested in whatever we're going to be doing. I realize on this last part, however, I might be in the minority.

Don't spend more than you can afford to risk, and don't spend anything unless you are enjoying yourself while doing it.

Committing the faux-pas of replying to myself here, but I'd like to elaborate a bit more on my original remarks.

I stand behind the general sentiment of my post and specific advice that I gave. However, based on some of the most recent comments, including from the OP, I'd like to add a few things.

Firstly, I want to make it clear I think it's pretty obvious that the model reneged. She screwed you over in a pretty big way and I think your anger is entirely justified. Although I can't ever conceive of asking for my tokens back, I don't think I'd blame you in this case.

While I've come to understand that custom videos might be pretty difficult, I tend to agree with @Miss_Lollipop that any professional should be able to both plan for the difficulty and keep the member in the loop about delivery. However, the major gist of why I think MFC is a poor marketplace for this is specifically because many of the models aren't really operating in that kind of mindset.

Lack of follow-through happens throughout the 'gig economy.' Think of how many times a handyman or painter has flaked on you, perhaps even after taking some money. Models are no different, and perhaps even subject to greater pressures since the abundance of forgiving members along with a constant and ambiguous flow of tips makes them less focussed on delivering particular products.

tl;dr: She should have not taken your money in the first place without being prepared to deliver. She should have followed-up with you more frequently. She should have refunded you (somehow) or tried to find another way to truly make it up to you. And you still should not depend on MFC for content like this, because you'll keep getting let down. The culture, the participants, and the contractual framework just aren't setup for it.

 

[MrSwoob]

Some great insight and info here. When I find my expectations, whatever they may be, not being met with cam girls. I will take a break for a week or two maybe longer. Some times just delete the acct. We can get compulsive as consumers, there is a whole psych rant I can go on about but I won't, take a break from it. I have done this several times, to the point I forgot my user id and passwords on accts and had to start new ones.

When I do that I learn from my mistakes. Then continue on. I have not done any custom content in years, special pvts or skypes are only with gals I know and trust.

There is the flip side, the last two times I tried to set up a skype I could not follow through due to my schedule.

Just my 2 cents

 

[DazzlingErika]

Yes, which is what I personally did at some points. I've stopped all new orders for anything custom before. But some sense of understanding needs to be had, like when I offered a new thing and the first day 23 people jumped on it. It's completely ridiculous to expect me to make all of those and send them out the next day. Demand was far more than anticipated. I got it all done, just not in the time-frame I initially expected to do it. I try to be honest with people and tell them upfront that idk how long certain things may take me. If someone wants to trade their tips for something else or get their money back I'm always willing to oblige and I think other models should do the same.

It just gets very old having people jump down your throat if you don't get something done overnight....

Yeah, it's all very true...Nonetheless, the girls should, if that happens, to answer the guy and simply say " Dude, i can t make it so fast, please give me more time"..As I understood, what he has experienced is not only late delivery, but no delivery and no answers.. I worked on MFC only for a short while, but I found myself being late with making the customs, as I m also a single mom, but I always told them, or offered something else in exchange if they didn't want to wait anymore...They always did wait and understand me, but like someone else before said, it's like a relationship, so it's necessary that they communicate

 

[Osmia]

....any professional should be able to both plan for the difficulty and keep the member in the loop about delivery. However, the major gist of why I think MFC is a poor marketplace for this is specifically because many of the models aren't really operating in that kind of mindset.

Lack of follow-through happens throughout the 'gig economy.' Think of how many times a handyman or painter has flaked on you, perhaps even after taking some money. Models are no different, and perhaps even subject to greater pressures since the abundance of forgiving members along with a constant and ambiguous flow of tips makes them less focussed on delivering particular products.

tl;dr: She should have not taken your money in the first place without being prepared to deliver. She should have followed-up with you more frequently. She should have refunded you (somehow) or tried to find another way to truly make it up to you. And you still should not depend on MFC for content like this, because you'll keep getting let down. The culture, the participants, and the contractual framework just aren't setup for it.

Well said; couldn't have put it better myself. MFC would have a lot more value to me if it did have that framework. Not everyone is cut out to be a successful independent contractor (I know I'm not). There's nothing wrong with that as long as those who aren't cut out for it don't try to do that kind of work because they think they have to, and end up doing it poorly and pissing off their customers (and thereby tarnishing the reputation of cam models in general). And I'm not really talking about custom videos, which apparently are very time consuming off-cam and just not worth it for models.

I'd love it if MFC made it easier for models and members to conduct a secure, predictable, low risk transaction for existing content (videos, photos, etc.). For example, the model could have her content listed on her profile, and I could select which ones to buy, and MFC would deduct the appropriate number of tokens from my account, and I would download it. Completely automated. This would mean that the model doesn't need to be organized or diligent enough to take "loose tokens" offered as tips and remember to send the video, and to send it to the right email address, or to make it available on ManyVIds or similar sites and send an MFC Mail letting me know. The current approach seems like a lot of unnecessary manual effort. MFC has some good programmers at their disposal. They could take other steps to make the job easier for models (and members, by extension). The automatic countdown calculator was a big improvement, but it's not that complicated, and arguably should have been done years ago.

 

[IsabellaSnow]

Hey Misono!

Sorry to hear you're having problems with getting content etc.
Something I used to notice is that usually when you make a purchase outside the camming world you get your order sent in a very regular fashion, no hassle. Brands and companies are usually efficient and professional. You order, it gets delivered in that amount of time or you receive lots of apologies and a refund. This is service we expect.

But the majority of camgirls aren't experienced business women. And they certainly haven't got a team of people working behind them to ensure customer satisfaction.
Mostly under 30, many in their early 20s and late teens. There is a reason why people at that age aren't usually hired for jobs with large amounts of responsibility.

Camming is after all a whirlwind where young women can earn a potentially large amount of money with no qualifications and no commitment. Some girls do learn the business and are responsible and organised about it. Some girls don't have the natural organisation and motivation skills to keep up, yet still have long term camming careers. They may always plan on making content but struggle actually keeping up with it. It is why I personally stopped as I find organisation tricky.
I can understand it's very disappointing discovering that your model hasn't delivered on a promise, and it is completely reasonable for you to expect her to deliver.
In a real world situation would you have given a young woman that sum asking her to go away and make something for you? Say a girl selling handmade scarfs from a stall on the street. Without company policy there is always a risk unless you know someone very well. I know so many people who have the best intentions but are terrible at delivery. It's basic human psychology that once you've received payment for something and don't have anyone forcing you to do the job then you'll lose motivation, but of course in the camworld no girl would deliver or do the work before receiving payment.

Like some of the other girls have said, if custom content is what you're looking for then unless you find a particular girl who is known for being great at delivering you're probably always going to have the same problems.

This is why I stopped doing customs. I got very few requests and they would hang over my head and made me resent it. You could say "why don't you just do it now?" but that's like asking a teenager why they don't do their revision or homework until last minute...

Hope you won't totally leave the camming world, but if it's not satisfying you and you feel it's become a waste then that's fair enough.

 

[yummybrownfox]

I'll chime in here with why *I* think this is happening.

Hopefully you guys aren't this type but a lot of girls...Myself included usually run into this scenerio.

-Hey I would love a custom of you saying my name while you play with yourself...up for that?-

-Sure..that sounds great! I sell customs for 100 tokens per minute and my turn around time is about a week.-

-Tips 1000 tokens.
-For custom vid! Don't forget to say my name and I would really prefer if you have a white see through top...blue shorts...pink flip flops. Please play Britney Spears on loud speaker and Katy Perry second. Please film in outside where I can see your neighbors houses and yell loud while staying the alphabet backwards.-

The last sentence was possibly an exaggeration but this is typically what happens. You are then left in the weird limbo of either asking for more tokens and looking like a bitch or dreading making a video because of all the extra work, props, time, location, etc. Then you start putting it off because you become bitter at feeling dooped....or you are just annoyed.

The best way to get a custom in a good turn around time? Say everything that you want FIRST. Before tipping. Do not add anything. Do not pester the model about it. STILL visit her room and engage in conversations that have nothing to do with the video. At the end of the night sign off with a "I can't wait for my video! I want you to enjoy yourself though so no rush!".

I am being 100% dead serious when I say I look forward to making the videos for those people...which ends up making me do them sooner

Omg, YES! That is such a pain. You just wanna ask them "Okay...is that your FINAL answer?" *facepalm*

 

[Misono]

Hey Misono!

Sorry to hear you're having problems with getting content etc.
Something I used to notice is that usually when you make a purchase outside the camming world you get your order sent in a very regular fashion, no hassle. Brands and companies are usually efficient and professional. You order, it gets delivered in that amount of time or you receive lots of apologies and a refund. This is service we expect.

But the majority of camgirls aren't experienced business women. And they certainly haven't got a team of people working behind them to ensure customer satisfaction.
Mostly under 30, many in their early 20s and late teens. There is a reason why people at that age aren't usually hired for jobs with large amounts of responsibility.

Camming is after all a whirlwind where young women can earn a potentially large amount of money with no qualifications and no commitment. Some girls do learn the business and are responsible and organised about it. Some girls don't have the natural organisation and motivation skills to keep up, yet still have long term camming careers. They may always plan on making content but struggle actually keeping up with it. It is why I personally stopped as I find organisation tricky.
I can understand it's very disappointing discovering that your model hasn't delivered on a promise, and it is completely reasonable for you to expect her to deliver.
In a real world situation would you have given a young woman that sum asking her to go away and make something for you? Say a girl selling handmade scarfs from a stall on the street. Without company policy there is always a risk unless you know someone very well. I know so many people who have the best intentions but are terrible at delivery. It's basic human psychology that once you've received payment for something and don't have anyone forcing you to do the job then you'll lose motivation, but of course in the camworld no girl would deliver or do the work before receiving payment.

Like some of the other girls have said, if custom content is what you're looking for then unless you find a particular girl who is known for being great at delivering you're probably always going to have the same problems.

This is why I stopped doing customs. I got very few requests and they would hang over my head and made me resent it. You could say "why don't you just do it now?" but that's like asking a teenager why they don't do their revision or homework until last minute...

Hope you won't totally leave the camming world, but if it's not satisfying you and you feel it's become a waste then that's fair enough.

Unrelated note, but where the bloody hell have you been?

 

[IsabellaSnow]

Unrelated note, but where the bloody hell have you been?

Australia! Then Indonesia and Thailand for a while
Got back to England not long ago

Just had to edit in also that reading the middle page made me really crave twix bars... Was it a deliberate pun that a girl would order sanitary products and they'd send chocolate instead? Because to be honest, if that happened to me in a time I needed sanitary products I'd probably not complain about the chocolate

 

[Boog]

Ugh, I can relate a little too much OP, and I shouldn't consider typing due to how long this may turn out.
Last time I was on this site I was trying to get advice due to several models flaking on me concerning customs. In my case, instead of quitting, this morphed into changing up how often I logged on to sites (now only weekends), who I visited, and who I actually communicated with. On one hand I've saved a bit of money by reducing how often I'm online, on the other, the last few months have been probably the most standoffish I've been with models since about '10~'11. I've only requested a custom from 1 person this year so far, last year that would have been about 3-4 by this time. Just an example, don't necessarily take my route. Hopefully you won't become as jaded as me but if you don't quit altogether, you'll probably have to change your expectations a bit.

But the majority of camgirls aren't experienced business women

Honestly it still boggles my mind but I've pretty much accepted this as 100% true. In addition, some cam girls who may appear as competent businesswomen can still flake out or ghost you just like everyone else. At the core I think a lot of it is a communication issue. Astrodomino's behind the scenes vid sheds some light on what the models don't tell you goes into their vids and how it affects increased turnaround times, but even taking that into account, it may be a very long time before you find a fav girl or girls who reliably deliver customs within your price range/time window. I wouldn't say completely quit the camming scene or stop requesting vids, but take their enthusiasm at the idea of making your vid with a grain of salt until they have a record of delivering on time. Theres a good chance that after sending the money, it won't be "worth" losing time that can be spent online receiving tips. Not everyone, I know, but still very frustrating.

Don't publicly call them out unless you are prepared to be immediately blocked from their room and badmouth like you're the bad one (been there, done that). Keep sending cordial messages asking whats up, if you are lucky you'll get a status update, if you aren't, well, you know, excuses or the silent treatment. Personally I'm not in the camp of continuing to tip while a model is actively putting off your prepaid skype or custom but it all comes back to how they handle their business and how you interpret their actions. Some models will make you a priority, others will take the new money without batting an eye

Adding more money for deductions? That seems pretty sketch in my book but I have heard of models asking more money specifically when they had to go out to buy costumes/props and the cost was higher than expected. Outside of that, that seems kind of sketch.

 

[EllaGray]

First off I'd just like to say sorry that you experienced that, its definitely not nice and when money is involved its even worse. I would say that you should make use of other clip sites if its videos you're after for a while, just because those vids exist and you get the link once you pay.

Personally, I've made maybe 2 clips in my whole life and those are up for purchase on my CB profile. There's a reason why I don't make videos at this point in time and turn down offers for them, I simply don't have the hours in the day or the skills required to make professional grade vids. When I do, I might rethink. Also I would hate to be late on a vid order and put a custie through some of what you are experiencing right now. I get that without the customers I have no income, so I make it a priority to treat them well and honor promises etc.

Maybe try emailing the model at hand or visiting her when she's online and just asking what's up? There may be some personal things that she is going through that have resulted in a halted production, you never know. There is an insane amount that goes into production behind the scenes and things can get crazy. Throw in other real life stuff and you've got a recipe for disaster. This isn't meant to excuse the fact that a deal was not met, its just something to consider when asking about your vids/skypes etc.

 

[Misono]

I've decided to attempt a break, for a few months at least. I decided to stick around for a bit, and tried to have a private earlier on (Trigger Warning: The Model randomly decided to self harm, blood and all with a knife during the show)

That was in no way something I'd ask for, not would expect to see. It's put me off, as they were someone I'd visited regularly.

 

[yummybrownfox]

Adding more money for deductions? That seems pretty sketch in my book but I have heard of models asking more money specifically when they had to go out to buy costumes/props and the cost was higher than expected. Outside of that, that seems kind of sketch.

Nothing sketchy about a model requiring you to cover the cost of costumes/props. Think about it. If your custom video request is so particular that you're asking for things she doesn't even own (argyle socks, argyle sweater, glasses, etc.), and she has to go out and BUY these things, of course that should come out of your pocket. But she should let you know ahead of time that she doesn't own those things, and will have to go buy them. If a model charges 1,000 tokens for a custom video (which is $50 in her pocket), and has to go out and buy those three items I mentioned, that's already like $20-$25 right there she's spending just for those items...unless she can find them at a Dollar Tree store.

 

[mutantdonut]

I've decided to attempt a break, for a few months at least. I decided to stick around for a bit, and tried to have a private earlier on (Trigger Warning: The Model randomly decided to self harm, blood and all with a knife during the show

That was in no way something I'd ask for, not would expect to see. It's put me off, as they were someone I'd visited regularly.

I feel like i was in your position somewhere in October/November where a cam girl i visited regularly did something to help sour my taste in camming activities (although it wasn't the only thing). That started my declining visits in camming to the point where i've barely spend any time now. In the end, i guess we gotta do what's best for our own sake. Sorry that happened to you.

 

[Boog]

Nothing sketchy about a model requiring you to cover the cost of costumes/props. Think about it. If your custom video request is so particular that you're asking for things she doesn't even own (argyle socks, argyle sweater, glasses, etc.), and she has to go out and BUY these things, of course that should come out of your pocket. But she should let you know ahead of time that she doesn't own those things, and will have to go buy them. If a model charges 1,000 tokens for a custom video (which is $50 in her pocket), and has to go out and buy those three items I mentioned, that's already like $20-$25 right there she's spending just for those items...unless she can find them at a Dollar Tree store.

Yeah thats what I meant, perhaps I phrased it wrong. Besides the scenario of a model needing to cover unexpected costs of props, I can't think of a legit reason for her to come back and charge extra.

 

[EspiKvlt]

I admit that in the past, when I was still 19 and fairly new at making full-on porn videos, I was one of those people that takes way longer than they said they would to deliver a video. However, never have I ever not kept someone updated, ESPECIALLY if they emailed me asking what's up. In one instance, my entire apartment flooded, and after a month of trying to get everything back and realizing I could't, I refunded a guy's $100 custom. Even if you suck at customs like I did and are always late, it takes literally two seconds to keep someone updated and apologize (and refund them if you simply can't do the job). For a while I stopped offering them all together because I just didn't have the time and energy while I was in school. I don't know, this thread has depressed me a lot, especially since I am still young and find that people are less likely to trust me.

 

[EspiKvlt]

Oh, and yes, I concur with everyone who has voiced complaints about how tiring and unfulfilling making customs is. I am someone who LOVES making videos. I make anywhere from one to two videos DAILY if I can. I try to be creative and have fun and it's just one of my favorite parts about being a sex worker.

BUT CUSTOMS SUCK. They just do. They feel like actual work, not like something fun and creative I have made with my unique and wonderful mind. You know what I'm saying?

And like 95% of the time customers want everything SO SPECIFIC that it's like "dude, you are asking so much of me, this is gonna take two entire days to film at this rate."

Just throwing it out there that yes, customs are a tremendous burden and a lot of us feel a huge amount of pressure and therefore put it off as long as possible. They give me so much anxiety.

 

[RaidRaptor]

I would just like to put in the thought that a lot of this is chicken and egg, its very likely i'm speaking about a minority of members but specifically in this thred and elsewhere a lot of us have been burned by not asking for exactly what we wanted. Customs are usually a large investment for a member and it becomes a big gamble that naturally really sucks if it doesn't go well. I've been burned by pre-paying for something so many times, its a hobby hazard that I've come to accept but its not unrealistic that members can pay their monthly allowance or more for a single custom video. I can totally understand that its frustrating being given overly specific instructions or being under the weight of expectation but I feel for a good number of us those problems can be alleviated or solved completely with just honesty, openness and a little bit of planning.

Not sure if that helps your situation OP but you said yourself that you like to use custom vids and pre-paid content to get to know the models so you will know more than most that "getting to know the model" isn't always exactly what you think it is and if that's your intention then you always achieve that, at least. There are cheaper ways to finding out if a model is trustworthy, willing and able to deliver content you pay for but thats certainly the most efficient. Having said that I am also strongly of the opinion that members should only pre-pay for content from models they know and trust, so in that same vein I'd say it seemed most sensible for models to only offer that sort of content to members they know similarly.

 

[skeeter2222]

Quick example then of my last discussion. I had seen the existing video list for the model, who I'd been tipping often, and doing privates with. Advertised custom videos in the room topic, and I decided that, seeing as they had masturbation videos, as well as an anal video, I'd like to order a DP video, which was something they didn't have pre-made. Initial mail was just asking if this was something they were ok with in principle, and how long the videos usually are, and if something such as that was likely to be more expensive.

I got the reply saying they were ok with filming that, and they named the price, which I was happy to pay. Before tipping, I sent back a mail, just confirming what I'd like, which was bullet pointed as:

- Striptease, outfit of your choice
- Masturbation with light anal play, whichever toys work best.
- Would like to see laid on back, but also in doggy during part of the video
- DP with toys of your choice until orgasm

How things transitioned was left up to the model, and they accepted this, so the payment was sent. I think it's fair to say both of us knew the plan from there. I don't think there's an easier way of describing the content, other than getting IKEA to draw a diagram for me.

Does that wording sort of look ok though? I mean, if I've done it badly in that instance, I'd rather someone said it.

Can I ask, what the price was? It sounds alright easy, and they advertised it, right?

 

[skeeter2222]

Exactly how I already am. Still been let down on the models I've known a while.

I totally agree with you on this, it seems that the better you get to know them, they seem to shy away from you then pay more attention to new members! Like they think, "I got him any time I want, I need to go after the new prospects!" Even though you still tip generously to them! Or more! I have! I feel like they're Father sometimes getting attention when she needs money! lol

 

[EspiKvlt]

I feel like they're Father sometimes getting attention when she needs money! lol

I know you were joking but..... super weird, bro.

 

[Osmia]

I totally agree with you on this, it seems that the better you get to know them, they seem to shy away from you then pay more attention to new members!....

It could be that they're just trying to establish some boundaries.

 

[skeeter2222]

I know you were joking but..... super weird, bro.

ok i was

 

[sspacekittenn]

It was eye-opening to read the various posts in here. I'm sorry to those of you who have had unsatisfactory experiences, especially repeatedly from the same people. :c I'm sure there's things going on in the background that are holding things up, but it's important to communicate these things! As someone who has been running a foot fetish blog for about a year and camming for a few months, I have had some experience with doing customs. My policy has always been one of open communication and aiming to please. I usually work out what kinds of material my viewer wants, and then create the content. I then contact them to arrange the switch of materials. I usually mention my schedule and any sort of "delays" there might be (IE my upload speed takes a while to attach videos to send them). I really enjoy making things for people I know, for the people that I hang out on cam with regularly or are nice and talk with me.